Michael Fassbender May Star In Steve Jobs Biopic

Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images The hunt for an actor to play Steve Jobs continues. Christian Bale has dropped out of playing the Apple boss in Danny Boyle's untitled biopic. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin previously said Bale was going to "crush" the role, but the crushing will now have to be done by someone else.

Deadline reports Michael Fassbender is being eyed to play the lead role, but Variety is definitively saying the Oscar-nominated actor is in early talks for the gig. Variety also reports that Seth Rogen has gone from being eyed to play Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to active negotiations. The big hook for the film is that it's only three scenes, and each one takes place before the launch of a major Apple product: the Mac, the NeXT, and the iPod.

If Fassbender takes the role, the question becomes where it fall in his blockbuster schedule. He's filming X-Men: Apocalypse next year and there's the stalled Assassin's Creed adaptation, which was pulled from the schedule back in September. Clearly, Sony wants to get their Steve Jobs movie on the fast track if they're already moving to negotiations with another actor the day after the previous one dropped out.

I want to be excited for this film, but I'll have to work hard to shake how enamored I was of the idea of David Fincher reteaming with Sorkin for this unique screenplay, which is based on Jobs' official biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. That's no offense to Boyle, and I'm sure he'll find an interesting take on the material (although here's hoping it's better than the disappointing Trance). That being said, I'm a huge fan of Fassbender's, and if he ends up playing Jobs, I'm excited to see how he'll tackle the role, and I would love to see him and Rogen play off each other.